Sunday 14th August 2016

Matthew 16:13-17:23

Focusing on this large piece of Scripture we get a sense of the danger and urgency of Jesus proclamation.

Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah; on the basis of the faith he had, a revelation from God, the church was to be built. Jesus transforms Peter’s faith and reveals the coming way of the Cross. Peter falls back on his own way of thinking and is rebuked sternly.

And then Jesus leads a few up the mountain and they see him as he is and always will be. This Glory shows the disciples the meaning of the death of John the Baptist. They come down from the mountain and…

14 At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”

17 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.

The man brings the boy and Jesus rebukes the people and as it says in John 1

10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.

There is a real tension in this rebuke that can be disturbing. How are we to react? Reading the whole passage, we get the context of these words. The urgency and the danger comes alive and Jesus frustration, as we read that this saying is in the midst of his transforming the disciples vision of him in the light of the coming Cross.

The disciples need to be transformed, realising their faith in Jesus, to know who Jesus is and there is a promise:

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”

There was a wide ranging discussion on our need to realise the life that is in Christ and our call to bless the world. We were encouraged to hear of small miracles of faith that were becoming seeds of transformation.